The Faithful (3)

The Faithful (3)

It is not enough for God's spirit to be in us and for us to be dormant in doing His will. We must be proactive.

Faith has these 2 components: 
1. Complete confidence in God's Almighty Ability to save and provide, and
2. Our active believing by what we think, say and do as proof of the faith we claim we have and profess. 

God's Commandments are geared towards helping us fulfill our own part of the CovenantHe has so graciously given us, which is our obligation to God and our neighbours.

In Mark 12: 28 - 31, when asked which of the commandments was the most important, Jesus replied the teacher thus:

29. “The most important one,” 
..., “is this: 'Hear, O Israel: 
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 
30. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 
31. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.”

Our Faithfulness should be to God and therefore our fellow man as well.

The sequence was not a mistake either becauseyou cannot love your neighbor as yourself when you don't love the Lord God as you ought.

It is easier to love and therefore be faithful concerning Gods covenant to your wife because you are bound by the blood covenant that cements your union, and to your children because they are also a part of you - than a your neighbour who is not related to you by blood.

This is because our faithfulness to our neighbour requires us to have faith in God's Almighty ability - to give us the compassion we need to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

Our faithfulness to God as in Deuteronomy 8: 10, 11 and 14, also requires that:

1. Whenever we have eaten and are satisfied, we must praise the Lord God for what he has given us.

2. We must be careful that we do not forget God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that has been handed down to us, and

3. That our hearts won't become proud and cause us to forget God, who brought us out of captivity and the slavery of sin.

Lack of Thanksgiving and forgetfulness because of the lust of the eyes, flesh and pride of life can erode ones faithfulness in our service to God.

We must guard against such by not gorging ourselves to the point that we eat and are satisfied, build fine houses and settle down, and as a result, allow the endowments God has given us to take care of others, become our gods.

There's a time for rest for God's people, His stewards, but there's no such thing as settling down and retirement in God's economy on earth.

As in John 9: 4, "As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent "us", "for" Night is coming, when no one can work."

When night comes then we'll rest.

The man who seeks settling down and retirement in God's economy should take heed of the reply of the watchman in Isaiah 21: 11 to 12.

He called out to the Watchman, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” and the watchman reply was, “Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.”

Shalom